Where are we today? Fukuoka and Nanzo-in

 Wouldn’t a statue of Reclining Buddha that is as long as the Empire Statue is high be easy to find? Not for Dave and me, who can’t read Japanese signs and who missed the picture signs. 😆

We navigated Fukuoka’s amazing and overwhelming multi floored train station/shopping area and managed to get on the right train to the little mountain suburb where the Nanzo-in temple complex is.  The Buddha statue lies in a nook of a mountain that is covered with Buddhist shrines and statues and stairs and walkways. One of the idols there represents a Japanese folk/Buddhist fusion of a “deity” that in modern times is associated with good luck. A priest credited a lottery win to the figure, prompting lots of people bringing their tickets and similar things there.

Our journey to find the reclining Buddha took us up many stairs and around corners, but we finally found a ramp which led up into a building and to stairs on the other side which took us to the statue.  Whew!

So far as anyone knows, this is the largest bronze statue in the world. 

Why is Buddha reclining? To Buddhists, this represents the moment when Buddha died.  They believe he was enlightened to the point of escaping Samsara and, thus, that he entered Nirvana with his last breath. 

Nirvana represents a transcendent state in which there is no desire, no suffering, no sense of self.  The person who reaches a point where he or she believes that the self is an illusion and that our true soul is just part of an impersonal universe is released from karma and the endless cycle of reincarnation.  This is the end goal of Buddhism. 

Siddhartha Gautama was a yoga practitioner and wandering religious sage who became the Buddha. Adherents believe he reached enlightenment through yoga meditation under a tree. His movement, in a way, was a reformation of Hinduism. He believed that enlightenment meant yoking with an endlessly self creating universe which is non-self. While various Buddhist sects have deities, they believe the deities are subject to Samsara. Enlightenment in yoga and Hinduism is similar, but views the yoking of our soul as being with Brahmin or a universal Self - the Atman. It’s still a pantheistic view of the universe. 

Dave and I didn’t know that the Buddha statue’s feet are painted with designs in gold. Buddhists used to think that they were unworthy of making a statue of Buddha, so they just pictured and worshipped his feet.  Even though this is a whole statue, devotion to the feet is still there. We never thought to check his soles. 

How refreshing it is to me that God isn’t some impersonal force or distant deity. He seeks relationship with us, despite our running from him. I think of Jesus being pressed by the crowd and yet stopping to inquire after and acknowledge the woman who touched the hem of his coat. I am studying intimacy with God now and what that means in our lives. 

It’s also nice to know that God doesn’t view our minds as illusions and monkey-minds, but affirms that our minds are good.  Jesus tells us that we can love with our minds, just as we love with our hearts, souls, and strength. 

After we got back to downtown Fukuoka, we lunched on yummy local food. 

We were at Fukoka yesterday and have been at sea all day. We will dock in Shanghai early tomorrow morning,  I can’t wait to tour that huge country!  Chinese officials are already aboard processing us for our visit.  

Sayonara!